School and Big Sky Conference records fall as Eastern advances
to host Sam Houston State in semifinals of FCS Playoffs

Fortunately, the Eastern Washington University football team had
a dab more ebb and flow.

The Eagles had scoring runs of 28 and 14 unanswered points
– and withstood an 18-point Redbird onslaught -- to defeat
Illinois State 51-35 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Football
Championship Subdivision Playoffs Saturday (Dec. 8) at Roos Field
in Cheney, Wash.

Junior quarterback Kyle Padron passed for 358
yards and a school-record six touchdown passes, including three to
junior wide receiver Brandon Kaufman, who finished
with nine receptions for a 191 yards. In the process, Kaufman broke
the EWU and Big Sky single season records for reception yards with
a current total of 1,635 yards.

“Their talent is obvious,” said Eastern head coach
Beau Baldwin. “You can see the talent in
both these two guys. More than anything, they have guts and heart.
That’s what means the most.”

The win advances Eastern to the semifinals and the Eagles will
host Sam Houston State at Roos Field next Saturday (Dec. 15) at 1
p.m. Pacific time. The game will be televised on ESPNU/ESPN
Gameplan.

Tickets will go on sale starting Monday (Dec. 10) at 10 a.m. For
fans who agreed to purchase tickets to all three playoff games, the
cost is $20 for premium seating in sections C&D, $15 for
sections A/B/E&F, $15 for end zone and $10 for east side
seating (behind visitor bench) The cost will be $5 more per ticket
for first-time buyers. Tickets may be purchased via
www.ticketswest.com or 1-800-325-Seat.

A limited number of free student tickets will be available
starting Monday at 10 a.m. at the EWU Bookstore in Cheney. A valid
student ID is required to obtain the tickets, which are
underwritten by the Associated Students of EWU.

Eastern trailed in the second quarter 17-10, but was able to
take a 24-17 lead at halftime with a touchdown with 10 seconds
left. Taking advantage of a Redbird interception in the third
quarter by Eastern junior Ronnie Hamlin, Kaufman
then caught TD passes of 47 and 17 yards within 15 seconds of each
other to give EWU a 38-17 lead.

But after Illinois State scored 18 unanswered points to pull
within 38-35, Kaufman struck again with a 76-yard TD reception.
Padron added a 10-yard TD pass to Ashton Clark
with 7:42 left to close out the scoring.

“I am just so proud of the guys for how hard they fought
and how they kept responding. When you get down to the final eight
in the country, you know there are going to be some highs and lows
in a football game. That game had a lot of emotion, momentum swings
and things that happened. Our guys found ways to make plays
whenever it felt like we were losing the momentum. No one panicked
on the sideline.

Kaufman had just three catches for 20 yards in the first half,
then exploded with six grabs for 171 yards in the second half. His
191 yards ranks as the 12th most in school history. Averaging 19.5
yards per catch with 13 TDs this season, he broke the previous EWU
season school record of 1,453 yards held by Eric Kimble in 2004,
and the previous Big Sky record of 1,525 yards set by Tim Toone in
2008.

It was Kaufman’s 18th career game with 100 yards or more
receiving, including his 10th this season.

Padron completed 19-of-33 passes, and his six touchdowns tied
the EWU single-game previous record held by Matt Nichols (8/31/07
vs. Montana-Western) and Rob James (11/1/86 vs. Weber State).

“It’s going to come down to guts, heart and mental
toughness when things are on the line,” Baldwin added of his
dynamic duo. “When we needed it the most they stepped up and
made those types of plays. They took shots to the face, broke
tackles, and did whatever they have to do.

“They will be the first to say they are not the only
two,” he continued. “It took a total team effort. It
took all sorts of guys on both sides of the football and special
teams to get this done. These two guys were great in terms of their
guts and mental toughness.”

Sophomore running back Quincy Forte added 116
yards on just seven carries (16.6 per carry), including a
57-yarder. Senior Greg Herd added four catches for
74 yards, and Clark, tight end Zack Gehring and
Daniel Johnson also had touchdown catches from
Padron.

Hamlin finished with 10 tackles to go along with his
interception, and junior safety Allen Brown had
nine stops. Junior cornerback T.J. Lee had eight
tackles, a forced fumble and two passes broken up. Eastern’s
defensive line also recorded a pair of sacks and the Eagles
finished with seven quarterback hurries. Senior defensive end
Jerry Ceja had three of the hurries and a
sack.

MORE GAME NOTES

At 8:45 in the first quarter, junior wide receiver
Daniel Johnson put Eastern on the board with
his first TD catch of the season, and the first of his career. He
now has five catches on the season for 81 yards.

With his 20-yd field goal in the first quarter, Jimmy
Pavel set the EWU school record for single-season field
goals at 17. The previous record of 16 was set last year by
Mike Jarrett.

Redshirt freshman Shaquille Hill suffered a
separated shoulder while blocking for Cory
Mitchell on his 67-yd kickoff return in the second
quarter. Hill returned to the game, but did not return
kickoffs.

Kaufman also moved into second in the EWU all-time career record
book with 3,350 reception yards. He surpassed Aaron Boyce’s
(2006-09) total of 3,330 career reception yards. Kaufman also moved
into the No. 3 position in EWU history for career TD catches, now
with 29. He is three behind the No. 2 position, held by teammate
Nicholas Edwards (32).

Eastern defensive end Jerry Ceja moves into
fourth in the EWU single season record book for sacks, now with
12.5 in 2012 campaign.

With Eastern’s 51-35 win against Illinois State in the
quarterfinals of the 2012 FCS Playoffs, the Eagles improve to 11-2
on the season, marking just the third time in school history EWU
has had 10 or more wins in a single season. Eastern finished the
2010 national championship season at 13-2, and the 1997 season at
12-2.

In November and beyond, Eastern is now 13-0 since 2010, and 22-3
since 2007.

Eastern’s victory over Illinois State was the 11th FCS
Playoff win for EWU since its first postseason appearance as a
Division I school in 1985.

Illinois State quarterback Matt Brown set
his school’s single season school records for completions
(254), yards (3,137) and touchdowns passes (26).

With 148 yards, Illinois State wide receiver Tyrone Walker had
his seventh 100-yard receiving game of the season.

Quotes from Coach Beau Baldwin

On Illinois State: “My hat is off to
Illinois State, they are an incredible football team. They did what
they did in their conference -- going down and beating Appalachian
State. It was not by accident. They are a great football team. It
took every one of our guys on every unit to get this win
today.”

On Long Kickoff Returns: “Sometimes those
things happen. Games are different. I tell guys I don’t worry
if we find a way to win 17-14 or if we find a way to win 51-35. It
doesn’t matter. Every game is different no matter how good
your offensive line or defensive line is -- you sometimes get in
different types of ball games. This was one where there were some
explosive things happening. I think we had three times as many
possessions in this game opposed to last week. Last week felt like
it went by so fast. This week it felt like there were a number of
possessions going back and forth. It was unique, especially the
third quarter where there was a lot of explosion, and they made
plays. Again, when it came down to make sure we make a play and not
give up a lead, we were able to do that.”

On Worrying About Close Games: “They
asked me two years ago if it was going to catch up with us. I
don’t really worry about it. I really don’t -- you
can’t worry about it. You could say it caught up with us
against Southern Utah because we didn’t win that game.
That’s just football. I tell our guys we are in a tough
conference and now we are in the playoffs, which is tough. So you
are not going to go out blow people out. You’re not. No one
is around the country. North Dakota State, the No. 1 team in the
country, won 14-7. I would rather be the type of team that finds
more ways to win in those tough types of ball games than the type
of team where in five different games were five points away from a
winning record. I don’t worry about whenever it catches up
with us. We are just going to come back next week, go to work and
try to find a way to win more of those than we lose.”

On Going to Kaufman More in Second Half:
“Our offense is not necessarily built to say we are going to
get the ball to Brandon – he would be the first to tell you
that. We have Nick Edwards, Greg Herd, Aston Clark and we found a
play for Daniel Johnson early. We have a lot of guys that can make
plays. Our offense is about taking certain things that they give
us. If they get in situations where they are leaving a guy like
Brandon or any of our guys single covered, we are going to go after
them. We are going to take those shots. That’s why you saw
some drives in my opinion, especially in the second half, where it
seemed like a sputter three and out, but also some big plays
because they were playing that style at that point. They were
putting all their chips in. When you run into that sometimes they
are going to stuff some things down, and they are going to stuff
you. They were not in a bend don’t break mode, they we were
in a more of a ‘we are coming after you’ mode.
Sometimes you are going to get stuffed. We were talking to Kyle on
the sideline when it was 38-35. We had gone through a couple three
and outs, and they had sacked us one time. I said we are going to
hit a couple big more plays. They are coming again; we just have to
think that way. I think it was them adjusting some of the stuff
they were doing that said to us, ‘okay, we are going to take
that matchup’ -- as opposed to the first half where they were
still playing off and keeping things in front of them.”

On Eastern Defense: “There were huge
stops. You cannot get caught up looking at the total points. Every
game is different. You are going to get in certain games where it
was like this. You have to remember there were a couple of special
teams plays (that changed field position), so you cannot get caught
up in the 35 points as being an offensive shootout. There were
plays being made all over, and the defense definitely made some
stops. We made some huge plays in terms of turnovers. We again had
some key stops in the red zone and some key fourth down stops late.
There were a lot of good things being done. We need to remember
this is a team that just put 38 points up against Appalachian State
at their place a week ago. They have a tremendous offense. I was so
proud of our guys on defense for the opportune times they made
plays. Again, there will be things we need to correct on film, but
I love correcting stuff on film when there are only four teams left
in the country.”

On Momentum Swings: “No matter what side
of the ball is struggling, it is the job of the other side to pick
them up. We have had plenty of that. You do not have to go back too
far to one of our biggest wins of the year, Montana State, to see
that. You saw our defense and special teams pick up the offense. It
sometimes goes the other way -- the defense is struggling and the
offense will go answer. (Illinois State) had scored some quick
ones, but we also were putting them back on the field quickly too.
Part of that is credited to Illinois State and what they were
doing. You were able to feel that momentum get grabbed again. You
were able to feel that and they feel that. You feed off that -- you
are human. (Our offense) fed of that and went back out there and
extended that lead a little bit more. We kept getting those key
stops at the end. If they score one more touchdown and make a two
pointer they are down by eight. They were never able to get that
because of the key stops late.”

On Hill Dropping Ball Short of Goal Line and
TD: “It’s a learning lesson. I can tell him
what everyone else can tell him -- run across the end line with the
ball. He knows that. It was just one of those heat-in-the-moment
deals where he was excited and he dropped it early. He knows it --
I know it. I just told him be ready to hand it to the ref the next
time you are in the end zone. We try to not make that a big deal,
but it’s not that it isn’t something you use to teach.
There is no point in screaming at him at that point, you just grab
him off to the side. I bet he will never do that again. I bet he
will go high and tight whenever he goes to the end zone. Sometimes
you learn from things like that when those things happen."

Quotes from EWU Player Brandon Kaufman

On Play in Playoffs: “Obviously, I think
it is an overall team effort. Balls are being thrown in the right
places. I just have a fight that I did not necessarily know that I
have. I am just working as hard as I can for these seniors. I am
working as hard as I can for Nick Edwards, as hard as I can for
Greg Herd, and as hard as I can for this university. They have
given me everything. I am just trying to dig deep and give
everything I have.”

On Difference in the Two Halves: “When it
comes down to the playoffs, you don’t see the team during the
year that you play. The first half is a struggle to try to get
going and trying to get a real groove going. You might have some
big plays here and there, but you do not necessarily know exactly
what they are doing until you take a step back around halftime or
the second quarter. Once we realized that what we were getting was
different from what we saw on film, we were able to settle down,
get our play calls ready and convert them.”

On Setting School and Big Sky Records: “I
did not realize it was happening until I caught the second
touchdown. (On the sideline) some reporters told me I only needed
one more yard to break it. All the credit goes to someone like
Kyle, the line and our other receivers. They open me up as much as
they can -- them being the threats they are. Like I said earlier,
this university has given me so much I just want to pay it
back.”

Quotes from EWU Player Kyle Padron

On Kaufman’s play: “He is
definitely a special receiver -- one of the best I have had the
opportunity to play with. He’s one of those guys that if you
put it in his area he will come down with it. I think it takes a
mentality. It says something about him and the drive it has. He
does not just show up on Saturday -- it’s throughout the
week. You see the work he puts in and it speaks a lot about
him.”

On Hard Hit On 76-Yard TD Pass: “It was a
little underthrown. He is a 6-5 and he went out and got it, shook a
couple guys off, and ran for about forty yards. I didn’t do a
whole lot. I watched from about sixty yards away. It made my job a
lot easier. He (the defensive player) got me pretty good on that
one.”

On Six Touchdown Passes: “That’s
the first time I’ve thrown six touchdowns. One yard or eight
yards, I did not do a whole lot on those. It’s more praise to
them (the receivers) than me.”

On Converting Third and 17 Play in Third
Quarter: “It was huge for us. Obviously it would
have been a lot bigger if we had come out and scored right away at
the beginning of the second half. It was huge for us to take the
momentum into the locker room and make the adjustments that we can.
Coach B (Baldwin) made some calls tonight that took a lot of guts.
I am thankful to be in this offense where you take shots on third
downs. He gives me the freedom to make some checks too.”

Quotes from Illinois State Head Coach Brock
Spack

Opening Statement: “First of all,
congratulations to Coach Baldwin, his staff and his team. They did
a great job, they’re a great football team and I wish them
all the best. We played hard, but we didn’t play well at
times and made too many mistakes in a game of this magnitude. It
was all phases of the game. We just made too many errors to put
ourselves in a position to win this game. I’m very proud of
our players. They kept battling and stayed in the game, but in the
end we made too many errors.”

On making remarkable comeback after being down 21
points: “Our kids have great character. We’re
very proud of them for that. We just ran out of time. It was one of
those games where you match points for points when you make an
error, which we had in all phases of the game. We put our defense
in short fields with the kicking game and a turnover. They ran by
us on a fade past two defensive backs for a touchdown in the early
part of the third quarter that should have been covered. We
just made way too many errors. We were in position to make plays on
the ball and couldn’t capitalize.”

On seniors including QB Matt Brown and LB Mike
Zimmer: “We’re proud of our team.
They’ve been great kids to coach and they worked really hard
and they’ve come a long way in the four years we’ve had
them. I’m real proud of these two guys next to me who have
been tremendous leaders and have never flinched. They bought into
our philosophy and took us to the quarterfinals.”

On Eastern’s running game:
“Technically, we made some mistakes in the running game we
haven’t made all year. We jumped out of our angles to the
football and some of our fire zones really hurt us and you
can’t do that in those defensive pressures.”

On Brandon Kaufman’s explosion in second
half: “I think it came down to technique and poor
defensive execution. That’s probably the biggest issue we
had. You can’t make mistakes like that against a player at
this level. The passing game was too good. They have big wideouts
who can really hurt you. We just made too many errors that were
fundamentals of defensive football within our system that we
haven’t made all year and we made a lot of them tonight. You
have to give them credit too, their guys played very well and we
didn’t at times. That explains the 51 points.”

On explanation of fumbled kick return:
“The whistle had blown. Had it not, the ball would have
remained live. Had the ball gone through the end zone or out of
bounds, it would have been our ball at the 20-yard line. The only
option was to put the ball at the 1 1/2 yard line. To our credit,
we held them to a field goal there, but the ball should have never
gotten down there. Since the ball stopped dead in the end zone, it
cost us a turnover.”

On the program’s achievements the last four
years: “I told these kids in the locker room that we
have a lot to be proud of. We had one of the winningest group of
seniors in school history. It was the first time we had four
winning seasons in a row since 1945. You can put that on them
because we were very demanding and asked a lot of them. These guys
hung in there and they bought into our philosophy and system and
made us into a playoff caliber team. We’re very grateful and
proud of these seniors helping us get to the
quarterfinals.”

Quotes from Illinois State Quarterback Matt
Brown

On Emotions of Second Half: “That’s
just the game of football. It’s just a microcosm really of
what the game is all about. You’re going to have the ups and
downs. You just got to be able to take it. When you have the
momentum you have to keep it, and when you don’t you have to
fight to get it back. It’s something we all signed up for and
what we knew football was all about. It’s something
we’ve grown accustomed to as football players -- just taking
it in stride and moving forward.”

On interception thrown to LB Ronnie Hamlin:
“I looked over to my left and saw Darrelynn (Dunn) in the
flat and Phil (Dudley) right there. As soon as I threw it, it was
one of those things where you knew exactly what you were doing and
then all of a sudden you don’t. I didn’t get a good
look at the defensive coverage and they did a good job all day
trying to mix things up and trying to confuse us in the second
half.”

On satisfaction of making playoffs during senior
year: “Definitely. It’s something we were all
working for. This senior class came together and one of our main
goals was to get into the playoffs. We’re just happy that we
were able to do that. We’re obviously disappointed that we
didn’t get the win, but you just have to keep your head high
and be proud of what you’ve done.”

On achievements the last four years for Illinois
State: “Right now, it’s kind of hard to see
that because we lost. We’ll get over this and be able to look
at achievements later, but right now it kind of stinks.”

Quotes from Illinois State Linebacker Mike
Zimmer

On big plays being allowed: “They have
some great players and when you’re out of position and not
playing defense correctly, you’ll give up big plays. When you
get to a game of this magnitude, you can’t spot a team that
good with that many big plays.”

On Eastern’s running game: “We were
out of position too much. We had the opportunity to make plays, we
just did it incorrectly.”